Monday 21 January 2008

Royal Fish

Did you know that Royal Fish are sturgeons, porpoises, whales and dolphins? ( In Scotland, porpoises and dolphins, and whales, measuring less than 25 feet from snout to the middle of the tail, are not Royal Fish.)

So what does this have to do with the Coastguard?

Yesterday as you may have read from our main web site the team was called to a report of a dolphin in distress by the stone quay. A department within the Coastguard called the Receiver of Wreck (ROW) normally deals with wrecks (Napoli and Ice Prince are recent example of their role) however Royal Fish is an ancient role that they are also responsible for and with over 10,000 miles of coast, local coastguard teams are sent to assess the situation, to protect the area and report back.
If it’s alive we normally liaise with the RSPCA but locally we have the wardens at the Durlston Marine Watch who are always keen to help. Sadly if it’s dead the ROW will arrange its removal that’s not before Coastguards have to measure and take details down for the Natural History Museum, who said this was all about search and rescue? For some excellent pictures see the lifeboat scrapbook who caught the incident as it developed.

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